One Decade Past
by Darrel Doomvomit
Summary: Hayley and Elijah have not had any significant interaction in 10 years. Only tragedy can change that.
1. Chapter 1

A Decade Past

Chapter 1

Hope watched her mother and step-father work alongside one another, fixing storm shutters onto their home. Her Uncle Elijah had compelled some unsuspecting human's to affix the shutters to the windows of Hope's other, much larger, home the day before.

Uncle Elijah had offered the do the same for Hayley and Jackson, "for Hope" but as always, Hayley refused his offer. Hope was beginning to understand, at 11 years old, that this refusal came with some reluctance on her mother's part.

She could see that her mother's marriage was not the same as the marriages of the other wolves in her pack, nor even the same as the strange relationship that had existed between her Papa and Camille for as long as Hope could remember.

This marriage was happy, productive, a strong force politically. It had even produced an heir to the Labonair line, Hope's 9 year old brother Oliver. But her parents didn't look at each other the way Cami and Papa did. They didn't hold hands as they walked down the streets of the French quarter the way Didier and Juliette, two of the many wolves in the sprawling Crescent clan, did. Hope had not thought much of this until a classmate had not offered her a "Ninja Turtles 2025" valentine last year, but instead had drawn a crude wolf and presented it to her personally at lunch.

Her awareness had shifted in that moment. People who were couples where supposed to feel something special, something only for their pair.

Oliver was definitely not a surprise baby. Nor was he a miracle, unless you were to ask the wolves in Hayley and Jackson's pack. A real marriage, as it turned out, was less about love than about loyalty, and most importantly, progeny.

Mobile, Alabama was close, large enough to have a good hospital, and ordinary enough to have OB-GYNs who had never thought of vervain as anything other than a folk remedy to promote lactation. Hayley's hybrid nature had preserved her ability to re-produce. It never got more romantic then that.

Hayley and Jackson's relationship was more congenial then Hayley and Klaus'. But then again, who really shared in congeniality with Klaus? The Marshall home was as happy as any home regularly beset by supernatural horror could be. And that was the result of a decade of hard work on behalf of Hayley and Jackson on their marriage.

They had defeated Esther, Dahlia, vengeful Guerrera cousins, survived minor falling outs between Klaus and Kol, Klaus and Marcel, Marcel and Rebekah, Rebekah and Hayley, and any combination of Mikaelsons and tangential relations possible.

That marriage could not defeat what was coming with the storm.

Jackson and Hayley had lived in the quarter for 5 years. The better relations between all factions of being meant that many wolves felt safe enough to move back into the city. The wolves who had stayed in the swamps where mostly odd and some old; very few really, few werewolves made it to 'old'.

When the hurricane season came, the Alphas would send an envoy to their rural brethren, requesting their presence in the storm-proofed houses of the quarter. This year the envoy returned with the usual stubborn refusals of a solid roof. He also returned with unsettling news that needed the attention of the King and Queen on the crescent wolves. In the bayou, some strange wolves were making their presence known. It started with small, dead animals. This was not particularly notable for people living in the wild surrounded by animal predators, most of whom where those very people. But then, there where the dogs.

No wolf leaves a dead dog on his neighbour's porch.

"Has anyone thought of changing, and then simply following the scent back to whoever is doing this?" Jackson was mildly annoyed that threats in the form of four dead dogs had been lobbed at his pack and no one had bothered to tell him.

"I could smell them without changing. I thought it would be best if one of our Alphas did the spy work."

It was one the few old wolves. This one was never outright insubordinate, but always without patience for the young Alpha.

"Thank-you, Hayes. Yes, why don't you just wait around for one of us to acquire some prescient ability so we can know when there's danger 200 miles away. I get that you all want to live out here, off the grid, but it's only a 3 hour drive into the city. There must also be a few cell phones out here in 2025?"

"One of the dogs had this tied around its neck." A young girl stepped forward, holding a card. Jackson took it from her, nodding his thanks. It depicted a woman walking on water, with rays of light emanating from the sky onto her head.

"Does anyone know what the hell this means? Hayes, you've been around… what is this?"

The elderly wolf shrugged his shoulders and then walked back to his trailer with noticeable disinterest. Jackson knew these people were his responsibility but sometimes they drove him insane.

"Someone out here must know some lore or myth or superstition that can tell me what the hell is going on!"

More shrugging followed Jackson's outburst, so he turned around and headed back to his truck, his lieutenants following.

"You all know how to reach me if any of you decide to be the slightest bit useful!" He waved his cell over his head, climbed in the truck, and began the long drive back to the city and home.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The full moon following Jackson and Hayley's marriage was somehow more painful for the crescent wolves than previous transformations. They had all expected something to have changed. The previous weeks of still being unable to change at will had not been particularly worrisome. They all assumed that with the full moon, the attributes Hayley possessed would finally be shared by all. Even in the days after that first full moon, some hoped that that would be the last time they were forced to change. But when another full moon came and went, anger began to simmer in the pack.

Hayley's resolve to forget Elijah was getting weak. After all, if the marriage ceremony had no supernatural perks, why should she be trapped in a loveless marriage? Jackson was undeterred. He went deeper into the bayou than was sensible, travelled North into the Appalachians, West up onto the mesas, South into Mexico. Typically, it was Elijah who finally found the answer: a child.

Elijah had called Hayley 'fecund' when the Mobile doctor declared her fit to bear more children. Klaus mocked his obvious attempt at distancing himself from Hayley with the use of as clinical language as possible. The change came as soon as Hayley got pregnant. Her wolves knew before any doctor could tell. One man changing at will was all it took. Obviously everyone got incredibly drunk. They were in the middle of their long battle with Dahlia at that point. Dahlia had already had managed to trap Esther in the other side at that point in their battle. But the witches of New Orleans were not about to let some European mess about on their turf. It took another 11 months of fighting for New Orleans to be truly safe for Hope.

Hope was not reunited with her parents until Oliver was 3 months old.

Jackson and Hayley stood in the courtyard of the compound, surrounded by some trusted wolves and a bored Klaus. Elijah stood in the sun looking at the card. "It is the Stella Maris. This could reference the abbey where the Carmelite order of Nuns was formed in the 13th century, the Madonna who guides seafarers, and it is also present on the flag of the Acadians in Atlantic Canada. The same Acadians who are more than likely your distant cousins, in fact."

At the blank looks all around, not including Klaus's obvious amusement at the ignorance on display, Elijah continued: "The Cajun population were originally refugees from British imperialism some 300 years ago. While you wolves seem to have lost touch with those roots, any rural people in Louisiana are bound to have some Cajun blood running through your veins. Although why Canadian werewolves would be at all interested in your little pack is beyond me. You had better look for some magical mariners with a grudge."

"Thank-you Elijah." Hayley through one of her casually longing looks his way before grabbing Jackson's arm and heading out of the Mikaelson compound and into the street. "Sailors or Canadians. Or perhaps both. Terrifying! Canucks with boats!"

Hayley walked purposefully towards her home, with Jackson trailing her, still studying the card.

"Maybe they weren't threats? Maybe some sick gift?"

"Jackson, you don't leave dead dogs as an introduction! You heard Elijah, angry sailors!"

Jackson bristled slightly at the mention of Elijah's name. While there was truly very little romantic love between his wife and him, the knowledge that she had been in love with another man for the entirety of their marriage still irked him. "Despite his encyclopedic knowledge of any and all forms of iconography, Elijah does not know everything!"

"Geez Jack, it was a joke. Let's get the kids; Rebekah has them at the park down by the canal."

Jackson seemed to concede, the mention of his children momentarily calming him. That was one thing Elijah could never best him at, even if he had to share Hope with her father.

Oliver and Hope were running around with some other children, all human as far as Rebekah could smell. Oliver was a happy kid, easy to deal with, normal. Hope was currently attempting to compel some poor child into handing over his fudgesicle. It wasn't working. Rebekah intervened before Hope could do something cruel. Hope had a habit of casual cruelty with other children. It was never premeditated, although there was an occasional pettiness that Hope tried to supress, when she realized what she was doing.

Hope's tendency towards cruelty as a first response was pure Klaus. Luckily for everyone, the remorse she usually felt afterwards was all Elijah. The fact that Jackson was more inclined to encourage this, and that Klaus was attentive to the point of obsession when present, but often away for whatever reason, had let Hope become only mildly obsessed with what she liked to think of as justice, not vengeance.

Rebekah heard Hayley's voice when Hope did, and Oliver looked around with frustration. Nine was old enough to understand that he could not have any wolf abilities without killing, but only on an intellectual level. He did not really understand what killing a man could do to a person. He romanticized the act, and looked forward to possessing some of the abilities his sister possessed innately.

"You're not going out there alone! It's not smart. Even if they are friendlies, we need to make sure they understand who the Alphas are around here. Take Linc or Taylor. Take anyone!" Oliver could hear his mother now, and she didn't sound particularly happy.

"Dad! Where are you going? Can I come? What are you going to do?"

"No. Absolutely not, you are not taking our 9 year-old out into an unknown, and probably dangerous, situation." Hayley hackles went up at the thought of her youngest going on some dangerous adventure with his father.

Jackson seemed to agree with Hayley, about whatever they were talking about. This further aggravated young Oliver.

"Mom, let Dad go out and alpha! He doesn't need back-up! He's the King!" Hayley looked at Jackson and handed control of the situation over to her husband.

"Come on Hope, let's take your mom to get some ice cream" Rebekah sensed the tension between the wolves and steered her beloved niece away. "Next time you want a snack you can just tell me and not torture some poor human child."

Hope smiled mischievously at her mother and aunt and began to walk away from her step-father, who was reiterating to her brother that he would not be allowed to accompany him on his little outing. Hope kept listening, while Rebekah and Hayley wondered off, gossiping about Camille. She heard Jackson mutter something about stepping up, as Hayes, the old wolf in the bayou had suggested. Maybe he would go out there alone.

Jackson waited until dark, waited until Hayley was truly, deeply asleep, and then sneaked out of their bedroom, out of their home, into the night.

He drove until he picked up the scent he had caught earlier, when he had first seen the dead dogs. The wind had picked up in the last few hours, driving rain lashing his windshield. After a few hours of driving around fruitlessly, the rain stopped. The rain had made it harder for him to follow the scent but the sun was rising into a still windy, but no longer wet world. There was something beautiful about the late October morning, the sun shone brightly on the dripping trees. Jackson caught the scent again, close by, and soon heard movement.

He wasn't expecting an ambush. It had been so long since there had been wolf on wolf violence in the city, not since Francesca Guerrera's cousin had some looking for his family 3 years ago. A large man appeared, wearing heavy leather gloves. That was all that Jackson remembered until he was shaken awake, some indeterminate time later.

"Where is the pretender? Where is your alpha?" Jackson felt something heavy hit his stomach, but as he was already in pain it barely added to it, other than to knock the wind out of him. There was something around his neck, burning him.

"That's him you idiot." There was another blow to his abdomen, Jackson grunted but didn't speak. "We need to know where the others are."

The sun was setting. Whoever had him, he knew he could hold out at least another 12 hours.

Jackson woke to something extremely painful being dragged across his chest.

"Where are the others?" Jackson tried to regain some control. He had decided that Klaus' compound would be the best place to lead these wolves. The children would be at school, the Mikaelson's would be lounging around as usual. Hayley may be out looking for him, but Elijah would be there to come to his defense, if Klaus reacted with indifference.

"The Abattoir, in the French Quarter"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hayley had been out looking for him. For the first 12 hours he was gone, she didn't worry. When Hope and Oliver came home from school, followed as usual by their wolf and vampire bodyguards, she was only annoyed that Jackson had gone off somewhere without telling her. She had called his trusted seconds, Lincoln and Taylor, and then she got worried. They thought she knew: he had gone out into the bayou alone.

Hope was listening to the conversation between her mother and Lincoln, her dad's right hand. When Hayley looked over at her daughter, she saw a purely Elijah look on her face.

"What do you have to tell me, Hope?"

"I knew Mom. I should have told you! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" There were tears, and Oliver stood by silently, worrying. Jackson was always saying the boy thought too much.

"I'm calling your father, Hope. He's going to look after you two for a while." This Oliver did not like. He enjoyed his sister's family, as he couldn't help but think of them, but Klaus scared him. His intensity in the protection of his sister, which occasionally stretched to Oliver, scared him. His father's obvious dislike of Klaus didn't help. Oliver was nothing if not a daddy's boy.

Hayley deposited Hope and Oliver with Rebekah. Klaus was on a manic artistic bender, not to be disturbed by anyone except his little wolf, so Auntie Beks would have to do.

When she made it out to the Bayou, she couldn't catch a scent. The rain had washed most of the strange wolf scents away, and the overwhelming scent of wet dog that her own wolves excreted didn't help. To add insult to injury, the high winds where coming from behind her, blowing any lingering smell away. If only she had paid attention when they were out here together. But she had let her husband remember the smell, trusting his nose.

Jackson had been missing for 30 hours. Hayley was regrouping at the compound, attempting to keep calm for her children's sake. It was Saturday afternoon, and they were restless and anxious. No one would tell them anything, which infuriated both children. They weren't babies, after all. Both of them had witnessed violence that would make a grown human faint.

Klaus was excited by the anticipated violence, but was being of little help. He would gladly see Jackson dead, as long as it was not at Klaus' own hand. He knew it would be as hard for his daughter to forgive him that as it would be for Klaus himself, in a similar situation.

Elijah was being the martyr as usual, going above and beyond for Hayley, neither of them making eye contact, flinching at every accidental touch. Rebekah, Jackson's seconds, and Davina and Kol where the only ones making any progress in coming up with a plan to find the alpha.

Suddenly every one of the occupants of the courtyard looked up. There was a smell on the air that even Oliver could sense. Burning flesh.

The doors out onto the street burst open, a tall, dark, but not handsome man sauntered in. Behind him a younger man, blond but tanned, pushed a bloodied Jackson in in front of him. The blond had a garrotte of wire and wolfsbane held loosely around Jackson's neck. Burns from the wolfsbane crisscrossed his chest.

"Do you know why there can never be peace in the Middle East?" The dark man spoke with an accent that could have been local, but was more nasal and over pronounced. "Every side: Jew, Christian, every Muslim sect, they have been indoctrinated with generation upon generation of hatred for one another."

Elijah shifted, his knees bent, and the blond man clenched his gloved hand, tightening the garrotte, sending Jackson down to his knees. Elijah took the hint and relaxed his stance.

"We were raised that way, so we know this is a good thing! Someone has to keep fighting for what is theirs! The Jews and Towel-heads can fripe mes balles. Who cares what belongs to who over there. But here! Here I know! But how rude of me, let me introduce myself!"

He bowed theatrically, "Leonide Thibodeau, at your service. And this fine fellow is my brother, Florian! Say hello Florian!"

" 'ey"

"Let me explain why I am here, with this usurper on a leash before me. You, child, what do you know of your own history?"

Oliver was standing stunned on the stairs, his eyes flying between Klaus and Jackson.

"Rip his head off Klaus! Why are you just standing there?" To Oliver's embarrassment, he was crying. He began to run towards Florian, but Hayley grabbed him and lifted his small body into her arms.

"This would not be wise, boy, and I think your putrid friend knows this. You won't risk yourself for this man, will you? I have been watching you all. I know there is jealousy everywhere among you."

"We know our own history, get on with whatever you have come here to say, and dispense with the tedious exposition, if you please." Elijah drawled this in his most lethargic way, but the tension in his body betrayed him.

"Why ever would I want to do that? The pressure in this room is delicious! Or is that just the weather? Who can tell down here in this swamp? You think you know storms; well you don't, not until you see a hurricane turn your entire town into a block of ice! But I digress. Ah, history. You know, Klaus,may I call you Klaus? Your pack expanded greatly geographically in the 600 years between your birth and the arrival of the French in the new world. They married the French. They became French! Eventually the Alpha was so far North his descendants would become British citizens. Or, they would have, if those Anglo connards had not dumped most of them down here in this hellhole. But you know, they made a mistake, because they left the Alpha in Acadia. We are his descendants, and I think that there has been enough mixing of packs in the last 400 years for me, the descendant of your father, Klaus, as well as your grandparents, Hayley, however many generations removed, that I am the Alpha of this, and all other packs, from here to Labrador. From the Bayou to Texas! Your bloodlines, Hayley and Jackson, you pretenders to the throne, have been here for 300 years. Well, mine go back 1000. More than 1000! To before these vile Vampires roamed this earth!"

Klaus spoke for the first time then. "Well, by your ingenious calculations, Leo, shouldn't I be the Alpha of every single wolf pack on the Atlantic coast? This is a theory I could learn to live with, I must say."

"You? Our Alpha? With your blood tainted by an unholy curse?" Leonide spat on the ground in front of him. "I am the Alpha. You Klaus, are no Alpha. I should kill you now. But I can't, not yet. Until then: Florian!"

Florian tightened the garrotte around Jackson's neck, and in one swift movement, it was detached from his body, and began its decent to the floor. Leonide caught it before it landed and rolled it towards Hayley, Oliver watching in horror in her arms. Jackson's rolling head had the room paralyzed, but Hope, who had been standing silently on the stairs, cried out, there was an explosion of movement, led by Oliver who was tiny a whirlwind of fury. But before anyone could reach them, the Thibodeau brothers had dropped Jackson's decapitated body in the entrance to the compound and disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Elijah and Klaus both tried to supress their Jealousy as Hayley and Hope cried over Jackson's remains. Oliver sat silently a few feet away, brushing off attempts from Rebekah and Lincoln to comfort him. Finally, he stood up and put his hand on his mother's shoulder.

Hayley turned and wrapped both her children in a hug that would have killed a human child. After a moment, Oliver pushed her away and turned to look at his father's body, while Hope jumped up and flung herself at her father. Hayley finally stood, looking Elijah in the eye for the first time in a decade. Both of them seemed to make movements towards each other, but one look at the children stopped them.

Hope had cried herself to sleep, her grief overcoming the fact that she usually needed very little rest. Oliver attempted to be stoic, but he was still for all intents and purposes a human child. Everyone not overcome with grief had gone to rally every supernatural creature that had come to respect Jackson in the last 10 years. Rebekah had bullied Elijah into staying as a guard.

Elijah's first instinct was usually to help Hayley in the way least likely to involve any actual contact. But tonight he could no longer restrain himself. He needed to see her. Elijah crept into Hayley's old room, shut up since her marriage, and sat at the end of her bed. She was lying with her eyes open, staring at the ceiling.

"When we first got married, Jackson and I assumed that a 'real marriage' meant sex. Do you know how many nights I would lay in bed after words, starring up at the ceiling in our little house and thinking about you? Thinking about that last Christmas together, when we had Hope for a few days. When we..." They hadn't spoken about that night, ever. Elijah said nothing. He had spent years dreaming about that last night. What is a decade to a thousand year old man?

Hayley sat up and reached for Elijah. He acquiesced. It was only a hug. And then it wasn't. Then it was the same as the first and last time, frantic, but now was tinged with some real grief that Elijah could not look past.

"Hayley stop. Please. You don't want this. This is your grief, breaking a wall inside you that you have spent ten years building. I have one too, it's falling down. But yours can't, not yet. Think about Oliver. Please, you are another man's wife." Elijah didn't know who he was trying to convince.

The kissing turned to weeping. Elijah held Hayley until she fell asleep, the same sleep Hope and Oliver slept; not at all restful but completely necessary.

"I can't find them. You know that I've been off my game lately." Davina looked apologetically at her brother in law, cradling her newborn in her arms. "I haven't slept in weeks. Kaleb hasn't fared much better. The young girls are not up to helping me yet. We just don't have a large enough coven to break through whatever is cloaking them!"

"That isn't good enough! Put a call out to Mystic Falls. Call on Esther! Do anything and everything you need to do to find these monsters!"

Elijah had only gotten more agitated as the days passed following Jackson's murder. His guilt over his actions with Hayley, on the day of her husband's death drove him. His guilt over the fact that he secretly hoped that the sooner they could have closure, the sooner Hayley would actually want to be with him, made him angry.

Guilt, anger, and Klaus' thinly disguised glee at having someone to avenge were whipping everyone up into a frenzy. Any wolves who had held mistrust of the Originals were now putting that aside, grudgingly grateful for their help in finding the men responsible for their alpha's death.

The compound was constantly busy. Hayley had not been back to her house since her husband's death, and Oliver had stopped speaking. A few days after it happened, Rebekah had taken the children home to collect some things. When Rebekah opened the door, Oliver had headed straight for his father's closet, pulled out a few flannel shirts and Jackson's favourite belt, then sat on the front porch while his Aunt and sister gathered clothes for themselves and Hayley.

Hayley spent her days searching the bayou fruitlessly. Rebekah spent her days making sure Hope and Oliver did not wander off to try and take matters into their own hands. Hope prowled around the courtyard, looking very much like an angry Klaus. Klaus' grandstanding wasn't helping, although Oliver's opinion of him was rising. This was a man he could emulate. You had to break bones to get justice. That was what the 9 year old was learning from the stream of tortured and dying unfortunates being dragged through his life. No one knew where the bloodthirsty strangers where hiding.

It was December now. Oliver had not said a word in 2 weeks, until he woke Hope one night.

"I'm not waiting around anymore. Get up, we're going out to kill those bastards." Oliver forced out the last word, he had some secret hope that it would somehow make his father appear just to chastise him for swearing.

"Don't be stupid Olly! It's the middle of the night. Davina hasn't even been able to locate their witch, never mind locating them. Go back to sleep. Uncle Elijah and Mom and Papa will find them and kill them. Painfully." Hope rolled over but didn't go to sleep. She had stopped fighting the burning in her stomach. Camille sometimes talked about her Uncle, and about Catholicism. She knew about the deadly sins. But she also knew that there was a place for rage. Righteous anger was good. Hope's thoughts strayed from this to her brother. Her brother, who had just spoken to her. She bolted upright in her bed, threw off the covers, and walked across the room to his bed. It was empty.

Hope got out of bed just as the wind outside truly picked up and blew the shutters on her windows open. Immediately, Elijah appeared in her room, closing the shutters and turning to Oliver's bed to check on him.

"Where is your brother, little wolf?"

"I think I need to talk to Mom."

Hayley unlatched the doors to the compound and they were immediately wrenched open by the wind. She ran out into the hurricane, screaming Oliver's name. Lincoln and Klaus where close behind her. They searched for half an hour and returned empty handed. Trying to smell a boy in a hurricane had proved almost impossible. Hayley could feel her son tugging at her heart. She knew he was scared. She just couldn't feel where he was.

As he pulled the huge doors closed behind them, Lincoln felt a piece of card. He grabbed it, latched the door and showed it to Hayley. The Stella Maris, this time with blood smeared on it. Blood that Hayley knew at once was Oliver's.

Rebekah's phone rang, but she almost didn't answer it. It kept ringing, so she picked it up. "Hello? This isn't the best… Davina! What? When? Yes, tell me now, you're cutting out! Yes I got… hello? Hello? Hayley! Davina broke their cloaking spell! They're still here, in the city. They won't be able to get far in this wind. I have the address. Quick, before they find a way out."

"Hey, Leonide, garrocher the boy, avant le hybrid freaks arriver! They've broken our paien witches paltry spell!" Florian Thibodeau kicked the young witch, already on the ground. "We never should have used someone who's slave ancestors sided with those suceu d'poche Anglo assholes."

"We are not chucking the boy, Florian. We are killing him. In the proper way. It is one thing to decapitate a usurper with a piano wire, but this is the pretender's heir! He is innocent, but for the sins of his father! He will be decapitated with la guillotine. It was good enough for the kings of France, so it is good enough for this little prince." There was laughter from both brothers as Leonide headed toward the other room.

Leonide dragged a screaming Oliver before his brother. "Shut up, boy! Florian, get the axe. We need to get this over with now! This thing," he gestured to the witch with his boot, "can find out how to kill the mother and sister after we finish this one and find a new hiding place."

The blond went to the back door, relatively safe from the howling winds, and opened it onto a small courtyard. The axe was laying on the ground covered in fallen branches and foliage. He took a step outside and barely felt his head being ripped from his neck.

Klaus grinned and sauntered into the house, the axe now hanging casually from his hand.

"My my my, this is a predicament you have yourself in, isn't it, Leonide Thibodeau? Why don't you let the boy go, and I will dispatch you of your head quickly, and not drape you with wolfsbane. Then perhaps, I will take a book out of our Canadian cousins from up the St. Lawrence. I was thinking of putting this axe head in a fire until it is red hot, then perhaps stringing it around your neck. Then I will pour boiling water over your head. Then I will behead you. No one hurts my daughter's family, you mangy mutt."

"Shut up Klaus. You don't understand! I'm supposed to be in charge! I'M THE ONLY ALPHA!" Leonide raised his arms above his head, dropping Oliver's arm. The boy scrambled away, and Leonide's chest exploded from behind. Hayley stood behind him, a shotgun casing with rock salt residue and smoke from burning wolfsbane falling to the ground beside her. Before she could make another move, Oliver jumped on the man's body and twisted his neck until it snapped.

He looked up at his mother, his eyes glinting yellow in the flickering light. "NO! No, Oliver."

Oliver's young face went from triumphant to horrified in seconds. "Mom. I killed him. He's dead." He launched himself towards his mother, she picked him up and carried him out into the storm.

"He was completely mad, Camille. I've spent enough time listening to you diagnose my many neuroses over the past 10 years to know that he was not simply on some quest for power."

"I talked to their witch. They dragged her here in a box all the way from Nova Scotia. They talked about their father. He was obsessed with regaining the family's honour, obsessed with the idea that they had been robbed of power. I think they were raised from infancy to feel totally entitled to whatever power they could grab. I don't think they would have stopped with the crescent wolves, or even with the Eastern seaboard. If they could manage it, they would have swept the continent killing any wolf in their way."

"Well, those stupid bastards never got a chance. It's done now. I want you to analyze someone else now. How long will Hayley grieve before she and Elijah can finally stop this endless pining and put us all out of our misery?"

"I think the question should be, how long will it be until Oliver can understand Hayley and Elijah? Your daughter already knows. I think she has known for a year or more. Boys are slower with these things."


	5. Epilogue

Epilogue

October 22nd, 2027, Oliver's 11th birthday

Oliver Blew the candles out on his birthday cake, and one of the little witches at his party made the candles re-ignite. He blew again, glaring at the girl. He looked over at his mother and his sister's papa. He was still jealous of her, even now that he had transformed (well, he had tried. It was too painful, and all it did was make him remember the events that enabled it). Now he was jealous because she still had both her parents. She had real aunts and uncles, and real first cousins (although Kol's children shared no DNA with the rest of his family). What Oliver had was an unhappy mother and a pack of wolves who were either pedantic or grovelling. This was apparently how they groomed their future Alpha.

Hayley came over, gave him a radiant smile, the kind he hadn't seen since his father's death, and began to cut the cake. His eyes wandered around the room, and stopped on his sister, almost a teenager, but still young enough to be wrapped in her favourite uncle's arms. Rebekah used to preface stories about the circumstances of Hope's and his births by telling them that Elijah loved their mother very much. Oliver never understood why it annoyed Elijah and Mom so much.

Oliver followed Elijah's line of sight straight to his Mom, who was handing out pieces of cake to hungry wolves and witches. Oliver thought that Rebekah had been wrong. Elijah didn't love Mom. They barely looked at each other, only spoke regarding the children or life threatening catastrophes. They never touched the way Rebekah sometimes touched Oliver's head, or the way Kol clapped his brothers on the shoulder when he was happy. But then, Hayley looked up and locked eyes with Elijah. Oliver could hear both of their hearts speed up. He had heard Camille's heart speed up like that when Klaus came home after being gone weeks. A slice of cake landed on the table in front of him, and he turned his attention back to his friends, pushing his thoughts aside for later.

"Do you love Elijah, Mom?"

"Of course I do Olly, he's your uncle."

"No, that's not what I meant. I meant, do you love him like Cami loves Klaus?"

Hayley sat down on Oliver's bed and stopped tucking him in. He was getting to old for it anyway. "What would you think, if I did?"

"You love Dad, right?" Oliver looked his mother straight in the eyes. She held contact and said "of course. Yes. I loved your Dad in a way that was different to how I will ever love anyone. He gave me you, and I will always love him especially for that."

"Ok. Then it's fine. As long as you loving Elijah doesn't mean we have to spend even more time sleeping at the compound. It always smells like blood over there, there are too many vampires hanging around."

"Ok kid, I promise that you will not have to spend any extra nights with the smelly vampires."

Hayley smiled, then stood up and left the room. In the kitchen downstairs, Hope was working on homework.

"You know, I'm old enough to babysit."

"What?"

"I'm old enough. Plus, papa has 4 vampires outside all night every night. Nothing is getting in here." At Hayley's confused expression, Hope continued. "I heard you taking with Olly. You should go to Papa's now. Just come home before he wakes up and he'll never know."

Hayley looked at her 13 year old with narrowed eyes. "How long have you known you little minx?"

Hope smiled widely. "Since before Dad died. I understand why you've waited Mom. But even Olly has been able to tell how sad you've been these past 2 years. And I know it's about Dad as well, but I think it is mostly about Uncle Elijah. Auntie Beks can't keep her mouth shut. I know everything."

"Everything?"

"Yes," Hope made a gagging noise, "everything."

Hayley could not believe she was doing this. She thought to herself that she must be going crazy. It was only 9 o'clock, so when she walked into the compound, alone, on a Wednesday night, Rebekah and Klaus at first seemed confused. But when she ignored them and headed straight for the library, they smirked at each other. Klaus went back to painting a wildly red sunrise. Rebekah got up and left. As much as she loved Hayley and her brother, she would rather not be around for their long, long awaited reunion.

It had been in a library the first time as well. But there was no desperation in Hayley's eyes when Elijah turned around in his chair. She was crying, but she was also smiling.

"Oliver knows. Hope knows. Everyone knows. We have their Blessing! Can you believe that?"

It took a moment for him to understand what was happening. This time, there were no sudden lunges, no violent necking. He stood up and pulled her into his arms. There was no rush, they had all the time in the world.

Afterword

This is the first fic I have ever finished! I did very minimal research for this, I will be honest. The torture Klaus describes was the way that the Iroquois tortured Huron converts to Christianity (and the Jesuits who converted them) in Quebec in the 18th century. They mostly did this because the Huron sided with France and the Iroquois sided with the British. (That is an incredibly simplified version of events)

It was really, really gross and brutal. Torture is bad, guys.

The terrible French scattered about is my attempt at replicating the Franglais patois of some Nova Scotians. The witch they bring back with them would be the descendant of slaves who fought for the British, and were consequently given (insufficient) land/shelter/freedom in Nova Scotia after the Revolutionary War.

All of this if stuff I just remembered from reading, and high school social studies, so sorry if it is incredibly inaccurate! Also, please forgive any massive plot holes!

Anyhow, thanks for reading!


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